In the 1980s, de Moraes worked as ADR and dialogue editor in the sound department on the action film Quiet Cool (1986), the crime drama Wanted: Dead or Alive (1986), and the drama Made in U.S.A. (1987). Also prior to her work on Star Trek, she was the assistant editor on the television drama Thompson's Last Run (1986) and the action thriller Terminal Entry (1988, with Tim Tommasino).